So, on to the next project. I’ve decided that I’m tired of looking at grey and deck blue, so I thought I would build an airplane. But which one? I’ve got a list of planes I want to build and I started thinking about a theme to tie them all together. High scoring Aces seemed a good fit, so I looked up the top U.S. Aces and found Captain Richard Ira Bong, USAAF pilot with 40 victories and a Medal of Honor in a P-38J, one of my favorite aircraft. Perfect. Many have built this particular subject and I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided I would motorize it. Then I thought it would be cool to have it idling on the tarmac with Bong in the cockpit so the idea of a diorama popped up. I found a Tamiya Airfield Fuel Truck and a Bandai Willys Jeep, both scaled to the same 1/48 that my Tamiya P-38J is. I’ll stage the scene as the plane has already been gassed up and idling, just waiting for everyone to get out of the way so Bong can takeoff and beat Rickenbacher’s record. The date: April 12, 1944. That’s the day Bong scored 26 and 27 over Hollandia. Here are the beginnings of my project:
I started on Monday the 6th. I completed the cockpit today. I used a Look dashboard and various Eduard PE parts. I didn’t use them all, as I found all the tiny handles and levers to be too much, and the kits levers were fine.
You’ll notice in the last pic that some grey plastic was left bare. I later painted the entire thing in Tamiya AS-12 Bare metal Silver. Black was chosen as the primer color because it works well with silver in my opinion. The bare gray plastic was covered in the silver, which acts as a primer for the olive drab to be applied later. I wanted silver under the drab so I could effectively employ chipping medium when the time comes. Question for those viewing…how does one chip and weather bare metal? Those leading edges of the wings would be dented and disfigured somewhat, but I’m at a loss as to how I can achieve this look with the bare metal look. Suggestions are encouraged!
Until next time, Happy modeling!
Sorry, but if this was the case, the plane wouldn’t be allowed to fly missions… By 1944, they had full depot level services at every major airfield… Leading edge dents, if the airplane ever got one, would be repaired on the spot… Bong’s Marge was a BMF bird, no paint… There would be little to no weathering apparent on it… It would be a shiny but oxidized dull aluminum finish overall minor oil streaks maybe and minor exhaust residues…
Also, at this point in the war, the crew chiefs would be hauled out on the carpet if they let it get gunky…
An early war green painted job you could get away with some of what your describing but not in 1944…
I stumbled onto a video on YouTube just the other day where this guy was using Marmite as a chipping fluid. I could not believe it. Marmite is a yeast extract that is used as a spread on sandwiches. It kind of looks like honey but thicker. The guy just dabbed a little bit where he wanted the silver to show through, painted the color over top then used warm water to clean off the Marmite and voila, chipped paint. It looks far easier than hairspray or salt. I have not tired it myself but here is the link:
Dick Bong flew a number of A/C during his career: a P-38F, a P-38G and a P-38H (all three of these were OD over Gray). He flew a P-38J named “Downbeat” (my personal favorite), a P-38J named “Marge” (with the famous picture on the nose) and a P-38L-1, yellow 42, with his entire scoreboard on the nose.
Another pilot, while flying “Marge” on March 24, 1944, on a weather reconnaissance mission over New Guinea, bailed out due to an electrical malfunction on the plane and Marge ended up in the jungle. The plane was recently found in the jungle and some parts of the plane were brought back. Here is the nose of Marge:
Between Bong’s P-38 and Gabby’s P-51, I have trouble picking which is the most beautiful fighter airplane to come out of WWII… (and then there are the red tails)
By the time he got to 25 victories, he had a covy of reporters/photographers following him around and greeting him after every mission, his totals along with McGuire’s were the talk of the SWPA theater… They would never have let his plane get too dirty…
You just changed my plan with your post. Not a bad thing, just a major pivot on my P-38. I realize that the Tamiya rendition of Bong’s P-38 is wrong, as far as victories go. The plane is marked with 25 victories, which could have never happened because Mcquire crashed it before Bong scored 25. Bong was flying Downbeat for 25, and when he broke Rickenbacker’s record. I got to find new markings to bring my Diorama to correct.
Yeah there is some question on the Marge with 25 victory markings… That last photo posted above is a widely distributed wartime photo showing Marge with 25 victory markings… There are several more floating around out there as well…
That is the image of Marge that the model manufacturers use for their decal sets… Yes USAAF records show when and where Marge was lost and yes that Bong wasn’t flying it when that happened… The issue on the victory markings is one that is going to be debated forever… They have the evidence from the records and the wartime photo’s that seem to contradict themselves…
Anyway, it’s a beautiful airplane… Do her justice…
EG
I love the look of Marge. But for my Dio, Bong would have been flying Downbeat. I’ve reached out to a decal maker for a quote. We’ll see. I’ll decide when I get the quote.
I was born in 1952 and there were heroes everywhere. We even had a Medal of Honor winner who owned a gas station near hear. Very early I became a huge fan of all the aces and have a particular passion for their scoreboards on the sides of their planes. For a lot of these photos, they set up a “trophy” plane. This might be the case with “Marge,” more for publicity than anything else. The scoreboard and photo might have been attached with rubber cement. I can’t imagine flying with a scoreboard and photo of your wife like that on the side of your plane. It would be like going into combat with a huge bullseye on your butt. There is a famous photo of an F4F Wildcat on Guadalcanal with a row of kills, then a space and another three rows of kills. It is attributed to various Marines, Joe Foss, Marion Carl and so on. None of them can remember flying an F4F marked in that manner.
There is a set of decals available for “Down Beat” which came with a Hasegawa 1/48 scale P-38J. If you are interested, it is on e-bay:
It is offered for $74.00 and $11.00 for shipping, which are not bad prices as e-bay goes. Of course, you are going to have a spare Hasegawa P-38J but there are plenty of decals available for all kinds of J’s so it wouldn’t be hard to do another P-38 say with McGuires markings on it or maybe Gerald Johnson’s!.
Thanks for the info! I’ll get in contact! I’m looking for decals for the B-26 “Susie-Q” which flew along the deck of the Akagi at Midway after an unsuccessful torpedo attack.
Further thoughts. Decided to go with the kit decals over the Down Beat scheme, even though they are not quite accurate. My audience won’t know the difference, and sourcing the Down Beat scheme was too problematic.
The figures that came with my fuel truck and jeep are unusable for this diorama. They are wearing jackets (ETO). Searching for replacements, I’ve found some but they are expensive, and with tariffs and what not…I just don’t know. I’m also waffling on the motorization of the plane. This is an already ambitious project without re-engineering two engine nacelles for miniature motors. I can do it, but not sure if I want to go forward just now. Got to make a decision soon, as it’s time to start building the twin booms. Anyway, upwards and onwards.
Until next time, Happy modeling!
Update on the build. Been away from the bench for a while due to an inability to find motivation. Finally got my act together and began assembly of the twin booms. These went together relatively easy, with the exception of the cowlings on the air intakes near the tail. There are three pieces, and they are very fiddly to get lined up properly. I did my best. Oh, before I forget, in reference to an earlier post, I’ve decided not to motorize the props because there was a great deal of re-engineering to be done to the booms in order to accommodate the motors and wiring. In context of the diorama, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze so I decided against it. I’ll do it on a different project another time.
I had several issues with the nose gear. The part that forms the tube that holds the gear which was installed way back at the beginning, split back into two pieces while I was in the process of gluing the gear in place. The race against time was on! There is a support structure for the nose gear that the nose gear has to pass through and clip into place which makes for very fiddly machinations to get into place correctly. Along with holding the split part together, I really needed about four hands to make it all work before the time control super glue set. I made it. Thank God!
I invested in a set of Eduard sagged tires and went ahead and built, painted, and installed them. The white spots you see are the contact patch and were intentionally left that way so they can be glued securely to the dio base when the time comes. They look really great, much better than the kit tires.
Ran out of Tamiya AS-12 bare metal spray paint, just short of the goal line. So while I wait for more, I’m moving on to finishing the cockpit and painting the pilot. In an earlier post, I mentioned my need for figures in tropical dress. I’ve found some for the dio, but need to recheck my pilot figure to make sure he’s not wearing a jacket otherwise I’ll need to find a new pilot as well.
That’s the latest. I feel like I’ve got my groove back so updates should be more frequent.
